council of ministers

Former PvdA parliamentarian Ahmed Marcouch will be the new mayor of Arnhem. The intention is that he will take office on September 1st. The former MP will be succeeding Herman Kaiser, who stepped down on June 1st, NOS reports.

The Dutch government will make a decision on whether or not the Netherlands will take part in the bombardment of terrorist organization Islamic State in Syria in the "coming weeks", Defense Minister Jeanine Hennis Plasschaert said just before the Council of Ministers meeting on Friday morning

Municipalities should have the capability to deny house seekers with a history of crime, causing serious disturbances or recruiting for extremist organizations access from certain rental housing in areas with livability problems.

The Netherlands Council of Ministers is expected to make a decision on whether or not to push forward with a sell-off of state-owned bank ABN Amro, sources inside parliament told newswire ANP. The government was supposed to make a decision about the sale two months ago, but it was sidetracked when the bank's executive board offered themselves a salary hike, causing a public uproar.

Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem approved the controversial ABN Amro executive board pay raise and promised to defend it publicly in spring 2014, according to a memo ABN Amro put together in August 2014, and acquired by NRC.

Within a year the packaging of cigarettes and tobacco must consist of at least 65 percent of warning texts and pictures of all kinds of distasteful conditions that you get from smoking. There must also be an age restriction of 18 years for the sale of electronic cigarettes.

To prevent experience getting unnecessarily lost, the Cabinet wants to make it easier to continue working after reaching retirement. Therefore they want to bring an end to the mandatory dismissal upon reaching retirement age.

In a surprise decision by the Concil of Ministers, the Netherlands has committed military personnel to the international fight against Islamic State (ISIS). In a press conference early Wednesday evening, Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher and Defence Minister Jeanine Hennis announced that the Netherlands will deploy six F-16s for air strikes only in Iraq, another two F-16s to be used as backups, in addition to sending a military defence team of 250 soldiers. The Netherlands will not take part in military missions in Syria.

Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte will send forty members of the Marechaussee military police to the Ukraine to help search for victims’ remains and assist in evidence collection. He told a press conference Thursday evening that they will not be armed.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte met with the Council of Ministers at his residence Wednesday night to discuss the next steps in the Dutch response to the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight 17. The flight originated in Amsterdam and was struck by a missile while flying over east Ukraine on July 17.

The Cabinet has placed a mourning ad in Dutch newspapers this morning, honoring those lost in the tragic MH17 plane crash in Ukraine, and remembering them "with great sadness and the deepest respect." All 298 names of the individuals who perished in the crash are listed.